Warren says yes to debate invitation by Victoria Kennedy

Brown considering Sept. UMass event

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Elizabeth Warren has agreed to the debate while Senator Scott Brown is considering the offer.

By Glen Johnson
Globe Staff
June 11, 2012

Victoria Reggie Kennedy, widow of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, has invited Senator Scott Brown and his Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren, to a debate in September moderated by former television newsman Tom Brokaw.

On Monday night, the Warren campaign agreed to participate in the matchup. A spokesman for Brown said his campaign would consider the request.

In a letter received by both candidates Friday, Vicki Kennedy said the debate would be cosponsored by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate and the University of Massachusetts Boston.

“The EMK Institute is nonpartisan and committed to educating our public about our government, especially the United States Senate,” ­Kennedy wrote. “UMass Boston, the only public university in the city, is dedicated to opening the doors of edu­cational opportunity. . . . The missions of the EMK Institute and the university dovetail perfectly with the goal of a serious Senate debate and exchange of ideas.”

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In a statement Monday night, Warren’s campaign said the candidate looks forward to participating. “Since this contest is for the office Senator Kennedy held for close to half a century, it is appropriate the candidates honor his memory and many accomplishments by debating the real issues facing working men and women in Massachusetts,” campaign manager Mindy Myers said in a statement.

Brown spokesman Colin Reed said Monday: “Everything is under consideration. Scott Brown has already committed to four debates, including two radio forums that Elizabeth Warren has refused to accept.”

The proposed date of the ­debate falls on Yom Kippur, the most solemn day of the year for Jews.

The Senate is also tentatively scheduled to be in session that week. Warren’s campaign said it is open to other dates and plans to discuss alternatives with the organizers.

Brown and Warren have agreed to two televised debates, one hosted by WBZ-TV in ­Boston and another sponsored by a consortium of news organizations in Western Massachusetts. No dates have been set.

Warren has also signed on for a televised matchup run by a Boston media consortium, while Brown said he would participate in two radio face-offs.

The latest debate challenge emphasizes the role that Vicki Kennedy wants to play in linking the Senate seat formerly held by her husband to his legacy.

UMass Boston was the scene of a Jan. 11, 2010, debate during the campaign to succeed Edward Kennedy, who died in August 2009 of brain cancer.

As Brown debated the early favorite to succeed Kennedy, Democrat Martha Coakley, moderator David Gergen asked the Republican if he could vote down a federal health care overhaul knowing “I’m going to sit in Teddy Kennedy’s seat, and I’m going to be the person who’s going to block it for ­another 15 years?”

Brown replied, “Well, with all due respect, it’s not the ­Kennedys’ seat, and it’s not the Democrats’ seat. It’s the people’s seat.”

The line has since become Brown’s political mantra.

The senator, meanwhile, has sought to nurture his relationship with Vicki Kennedy. In April 2011, when ground was broken on the Edward Kennedy Institute, Brown flew up from Washington amid Senate business so he could speak at the event. The institute is being built on Columbia Point, ­between UMass Boston and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum.

“I told you I’d come,” Brown said to Vicki Kennedy. As the groundbreaking audience started to chuckle, Brown looked out and added, “A little surprise to everybody, isn’t it?”

In February, though, Brown angered Patrick Kennedy, one of Edward Kennedy’s sons and a former US House member from Rhode Island, when he said in a radio ad that “like Ted Kennedy before me, I support a conscience exemption in health care for Catholics and other people of faith.”

Warren had complained that an amendment Brown supported could allow insurance companies to deny contraception and other health insurance coverages if an employer cites a religious objection.

“Providing health care to ­every American was the work of my father’s life,’’ Patrick Kennedy wrote to Brown. “The Blunt Amendment you are supporting is an attack on that cause.”

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

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